54 Chapter 53: Abductions

After saying goodbye to Bell by leaving a letter, the duo returned to Orario and Lars flew them towards the city.

"Hail, Lars-sama. You make a good transport system." Alfia teased him.

"Hmph, the days of the Alfia express is over." Lars fired back and they chuckled.

Reminiscing about the times where he would call Alfia for a ride.

"You've improved a lot. Though I was already level 7 your age." Alfia smirked at him.

"Hmph, scrub. Unlike you, we max our stats first before we level up." Lars rolled his eyes.

"Amateur, of course I also maxed my stats before I leveled up." Alfia had a smug look on her face.

"Damn... You're really the incarnation of talent for a reason." Lars imagined how she would grow if she appeared now.

Where she didn't need to focus on the three great quests. With time and freedom to dungeon dive.

She would most likely be a level 9 or 10 adventurer right now. And that was insane amount of growth.

"I even have D's on my stats right now. I can already level up to 9. But I'll follow your creed of maxing everything first." Alfia chuckled.

"Anything new in the lower floors? I can be your supporter and we can go deeper than anyone has ever did." Lars offered.

"Hmm, I don't want to go to the 67th floor on my own. The monster rex there is level 9. I can beat it, but I'll be wounded." Alfia tapped on her chin.

"A level 9 monster rex?" Lars blinked and he thought that will be a good punching bag later if he wants to level up to 4.

"Yes, it's a dragon that turned the 60th floor until the 70th into a tundra. And the deeper you go, the colder it gets." Alfia snorted.

She didn't like going to those floors, it was cold as fuck.

"Then let's go beat the crap out of it later and make leather bags out of its hide." Lars chuckled.

"Hmm, I like the sound of that." Alfia nodded at him.

Returning to Monstro, the two of them were inseparable for now. And the first one to notice it was Tione.

"Hmm? Fishy..." The amazoness squinted her eyes. The two were of course close. Everybody knew that.

They just had something special that nobody could explain. But now, it's different.

"Tiona... I'm going dark." Tione tapped her sister's shoulder and she began to sneak around.

"Huh?" Tiona was confused as hell as she continued reading hero stories that Lars wrote for her.

Tione peered into Lars' shack that he still lives in even though there are a lot of buildings now for Monstro.

"Do we accept Bell in Demeter's familia? Or let him find his own?" Alfia asked Lars and he shrugged.

"Let him find his own, you want the little rabbit to be a hero right? He can't turn into one if he can't even find a familia to start his adventure." Lars was adamant.

'Bell? Who is that?' Tione was confused. "You're right... I can't be overprotective about my little boy." Alfia sighed.

Tione went wide eyed and her mind started racing. 'Is that the reason why she just disappeared for months?'

The amazoness thought that Alfia had a son. And who could be the father? Except Lars, who is the only male she is interacting with.

Tione's soul almost escaped from her mouth. 'N-no... I can't give up. Kuu! Alfia might be more beautiful... Sexier... Stronger... And stronger.'

She did an orz as she saw how far outclassed they were by Alfia.

'But I'm tanned and exotic! Lars would definitely love this chocolate skin!' Tione did a guts pose.

"Tione, what the hell are you doing? Your noisiness is cluttering up my space." Alfia could feel her chaotic mana.

"Ahhh! Uhhh, sorry! Gotta go bye!" Tione ran like the wind.

Lars just raised a brow and he began patrolling Monstro. Checking what the city needed.

"Hmm, I think we need more camouflage for now." Lars rubbed his chin pensively.

The top familias are beginning to restart their dungeon diving. And Monstro isn't exactly small right now.

While he was making decisions about how the city will develop, he was tackled by Ray.

"Woah? What's the matter Ray?" Lars asked her and she was sweating.

"It's trouble! We just had a report that some lamias and harpies are being transported by some adventurers!" Ray informed him with a grave tone.

"Someone's poaching xenos?" Lars furrowed his brows.

"Damn it, Fels. How did you not know that xenos are known by other people?" Lars clicked his tongue.

If they were being poached, then there's a market for them. And this, was a true emergency.

"Gather everyone, we will be having an expedition of our own. Where were they last spotted?" Lars asked seriously.

"They were last sighted at the large tree labyrinth. It seems that there's a group of xenos there that eluded us." Ray frowned.

"Call the xenos, quick." Lars ordered and Ray flew to the skies, calling the other fliers to inform Monstro of an emergency.

"Tch, this is going to be troublesome." Lars immediately called Fels.

"What can I do for you, Lars?" Fels answered pretty quickly.

"We have a problem..." Lars looked at them with a frown and Fels knew that something was terribly wrong.

__Monstro__

Lars looked at the xenos that Ray and Fear gathered. They were at minimum, level 4.

Nodding in satisfaction at their picks, the able bodied xenos were ready to do something.

Some groups even scuttling around to get their armor and weapons.

"Citizens of Monstro, you must have heard. Your brethren and sisters are being held captive to be sold or tortured." Lars squinted his eyes.

The xenos gasped and everybody was antsy to save them.

"But fear not, we have already barricaded the entrance to the dungeon. Fels did it for us, though our time is limited." Lars clapped.

"Now, let us save the poor souls and bring them back here to Monstro. Your home, somewhere you belong." Lars looked at the hell hounds.

Ranye nodded at Lars and she used her webs to strap them to harpies, griphons, and other flying xenos.

They then got carried by them in order to be the trackers.

"Should I intervene?" Alfia asked him and he shook his head.

"No, they'll take care of this. You can't, it will be overkill." Lars rejected her offer.

"Hmm, you're right. Then fix this mess, the xenos might be noisy... But they're a part of our home still." Alfia looked at them with a bit of fondness.

They were nothing to her back in the past. Just a whim of Lars, but they were genuine.

Much more so than humans and gods of Orario. And that puts them in her tolerable list.

"I guess I'll do some work too, Airmid, Tiona, Tione, you form a squad too and bar anyone from Rivira in going down floors." Lars ordered and they nodded.

The guild might be able to ban entrance to the dungeon for now. But those who are already inside aren't included in that.

"Hmm, stay safe." Alfia kissed him and the girls' jaws, dropped.

"I will." Lars started to fly using his psychokinesis in order to be as fast as he could.

"What was that!?" The three asked their master immediately.

"Huh?" Alfia didn't know why they were fidgety and shocked.

__Middle Floors__

Lars was currently sniffing the air for adventurers in the large tree labyrinth.

The humidity was great for scents to diffuse as well. But there's a problem that came with it.

Everywhere in the dungeon floor he was in, vegetation could be seen.

And the scents were all muddled up. "I can't rely on my sense of smell here, shit." Lars smelled the harsh poisons in the labyrinth.

His eyes turned to slits and he went to the highest point on the floor.

But he got nothing. "Damn, where are those pricks?" Lars clicked his tongue.

He continued his search and after an hour of dilligent flying, he found one of the tracking groups fighting adventurers.

"Good job!" Lars flew towards them immediately and he crashed right between the two groups.

"W-wha? What's happening!?" The guy in front shouted in confusion.

"You came and messed with the wrong house, fool." Lars saw that the cages behind them contained some shivering xenos.

And he knew why they were taken, they were exotic and pretty. And humans love pretty things.

"Who are y-" A loud crunch resounded as he saw his comrades.

"Hieee!" They shouted in fear as their leader froze like a statue. He then kneeled down, coughing up blood.

His neck, spun around a 180 degrees. "Who I am doesn't matter. You should be more worried about where you're going."

Lars looked around and he nodded. Strings of web that were stronger than steel wires incapacitated the other adventurers and Lars walked up to them.

He went towards the closest one and he raised his face. "I'll give you two choices, the easy way. Or the hard way, the choice is yours."

Lars pointed at their leader who was staring at them blankly with hollow eyes, dead.

"Fuck you! And these monster bitches! Our friends will know what happened!" The guy knew he was done for.

But he thought that their leader will fuck them up later, so he grinned as he spat at Lars.

Lars raised his finger and his prisoner's spit stopped in midair.

"Didn't your mother ever tell you not to spit on people?" He opened his mouth and pulled on the guy's tongue.

"If you don't want to talk, then so be it. You could've made this much easier." Lars sighed.

"Helga, how about a snack?" Lars looked at a hellhound with a cute, pink ribbon on its neck.

The hellhound nodded at him and Helga's pack started to surround the man.

Without his tongue, he could only give out moans of fear. And the others watched with bated breath.

Helga's pack started to take bites out of the poor bastard and the others trembled in fear at his fate.

"Do you know that attack magic isn't that scary? Wanna know what's really scary?" Lars asked them as he smirked.

He started chanting and a diamond shaped magic circle formed in front of his hand.

Dia Fratel, Airmid's healing magic. Something that he copied from her, began healing the sod that Helga's pack was tearing apart.

And he started getting healed. "We can do this all day, don't worry. I've got plenty of time and mana to spare."

Lars thought that they were going to start singing. But something else happened.

"I'll talk! I'll talk! The one responsible is the I-" One of them cried out, but his head suddenly exploded.

The others then followed suit and Lars frowned heavily.

"Curses?" He couldn't believe that they'll even employ tactics like that.

"Must have been put on them without them knowing." Ranye gave her insight.

"Yeah, nobody would agree to this." Ray gagged at the brutal sight.

"It does not matter, I can still see who they're with." Lars took one of the bodies and he looked at their back.

Their falna. Lars used Typhon a bit to unlock the falna and see which god it belonged to.

"Ikelos familia... I see." Lars squinted his eyes as they found a target.

"Ranye, Ray, take the lamias and harpies. Lead them to Monstro, you two are the strongest here." Lars ordered and they saluted.

Lars took out the phone orb in his inventory and called Fels.

"I want to know everything about the Ikelos familia. Who their latest adventurer was, their rank, their members, anything." Lars said immediately.

"The Ikelos familia huh?" Fels sounded a bit miffed.

"They've gone off the radar for some time now." Fels explained and Lars snorted.

"I want any information about them still, compile it and we'll hunt them down to the very last man." Lars wasn't playing.

"Understood, I'll send you their files as quick as possible." Fels ended the call to prepare them.

"Ikelos huh? God of nightmares? I'll enjoy savoring your divinity." Lars' eyes turned to slits as he tried to get a whiff of Ikelos.

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Thanks for reading everyone, ciao.